U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly discovered Gilbert Fonticoba of Hialeah responsible of obstructing an official continuing and civil dysfunction throughout his bench trial (a trial the place the decision is within the arms of a choose somewhat than a jury). Fonticoba was arrested in 2021 on six federal costs after touring with different outstanding Proud Boys to D.C., the place he was captured on surveillance footage contained in the Capitol constructing with fellow members of the far-right nationalist group.Â
Fonticoba was a member of the Ministry of Self Defense, a bunch of members Proud Boys leaders singled out to spearhead the assault on the Capitol, in response to prosecutors. He was with Proud Boys leaders Joe Biggs and Ethan Nordean as they pushed previous D.C. officers throughout the riot.
“Fonticoba stood immediately behind Biggs as Biggs mixed with Nordean and others to tear down the black steel fence. After the fence section in entrance of Biggs and Fonticoba had damaged free from a close-by publish, Fonticoba reached ahead, grabbed the fence, and assisted Biggs and others in pulling the fence down towards the bottom,” in response to a joint stipulation for the bench trial.
A 2021-22 Republican Executive Committee roster obtained by New Times contains the names of a number of present and former Proud Boys.
Obtained by New Times
On the night of January 6, Fonticoba joined senior Proud Boys, together with the group’s then-chief Enrique Tarrio, in a Baltimore lodge room after the riot, the stipulation states. Tarrio had been arrested two days earlier on costs associated to the burning of a stolen Black Lives Matter flag, and he was not current on the Capitol grounds on January 6, although federal prosecutors alleged he orchestrated the group’s actions throughout the assault.
Fonticoba’s sentencing is scheduled for January 11, 2024.
Fonticoba is one in all quite a few Proud Boys indicted for breaching the Capitol throughout the certification of electoral faculty votes for the 2020 election of President Joe Biden. He can also be one in all a number of who beforehand joined the Miami-Dade GOP Executive Committee, which is the Republican Party’s native governing physique.
While dealing with costs associated to the Capitol assault, no less than a half-dozen then-current and former Proud Boys managed to safe seats inside the GOP committee in an effort to form native politics from the within. New Times beforehand obtained a duplicate of the 2021-22 Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee roster, which listed Fonticoba and onetime Proud Boy Gabriel Garcia, who’s additionally dealing with costs associated to January 6.
As famous by New York Times journalists Patricia Mazzei and Alan Feuer, the far-right group had “destabilized and dramatically reshaped” a once-conservative and buttoned-up Miami-Dade Republican Party.
Fonticoba’s sentencing comes simply weeks after 5 main Proud Boys members have been sentenced to a number of the lengthiest jail phrases thus far for the Capitol assault.
In early September, Miami native Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years for his position within the riot — the longest sentence imposed upon a January 6 defendant. Three different leaders of the group who have been convicted of seditious conspiracy — Biggs, Nordean, and Zach Rehl — obtained sentences that ranged from 15 to 18 years.